Digital signage can help you capture the attention of your target audience and keep them engaged, resulting in more business for you. But only if you get the content right.
If your digital signage displays high-quality images, videos, and other stunning visuals, you can easily capture people’s attention and make an impression.
Thankfully, you do not have to hire an expensive design team to create compelling digital signage visual content that connects and converts.
There are several online tools that allow even people with zero design knowledge to create captivating digital signage content.
We’ll examine these tools in this article. To make it easy to find specific tools, we’ve separated them into several categories.
Let’s get started!
Image creation tools
To create high-quality images for your digital signage displays, some of the best tools to use include:
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular photo editing tool. Photoshop lets you do a myriad of things to images so they come out looking sharper and more aesthetically pleasing.
You can add/ remove elements, change the background colour, and more.
Pros of Photoshop
Tons of tools are available (and continually get added) that enhance your creativity when editing images.
It has several templates that you can customise to create stunning images quickly.
Has a stock library that lets you access free stock images.
It allows editing of virtually all available image formats.
It now has features for editing videos and animations.
Cons of Photoshop
The interface can be intimidating for beginners.
The program (and even Photoshopped images) consumes a lot of space in your system’s hard disk.
Photoshop is relatively expensive.
Canva
Canva is a top tool in design and image editing. Canva was launched as an automated tool that allows people with little to no design skills to create outstanding visual content in a blink. This makes it one of the best tools for creating digital signage content.
The web-based tool is very intuitive. You can play around with its simple “editor” and come out with great marketing content.
Pros of Canva
Offers a simple drag-and-drop content manager that makes it easy to use.
Has customisable templates which you can use to create digital posters quickly.
Offers stock images.
Allows teams to collaborate when creating content.
Has a free version and budget-friendly paid plans.
Cons of Canva
Canva’s number of templates and stock images is relatively limited.
Limited when it comes to creating unique elements.
Adobe Express
Adobe Express is Adobe’s answer to automated design tools like Canva.
As mentioned earlier, Adobe’s kingly software, Photoshop, is not beginner-friendly. Then came automated tools like Canva, allowing beginners and non-designers to create images easily. Adobe faced declining popularity and had to do something. It acted by launching its own automated graphic designing tool - Adobe Express.
When looking for free tools to create images with just a few clicks, Adobe Express (formerly Adobe Spark) ticks the box. It comes with thousands of customisable templates, fonts, and stock photos for you to create great digital signage visuals.
Pros of Adobe Express
Has a graphic editor that is both powerful and easy-to-use, making the software non-designer and beginner-friendly.
It has thousands of customisable templates for easily creating designs.
Offers a free stock library.
Features a social media post scheduler that lets you set the time for posts to go live.
Cons of Adobe Express
The free version is very limited.
Mockups Jar
When selling online, showing potential clients a digital render of your product can be what pushes them over the indecision line. This is particularly so for apparel brands, book illustrators, software producers, product designers, and more.
Mockups Jar is an excellent tool for creating visual representations of your products on screen. It offers 919+ ready-to-use product mockups that let you create your digital render in three easy steps.
The software offers some mockup designs that similar tools don’t, such as flat design browser mockups that are excellent for representing your website.
Pros of Mockups Jar
It has hundreds of ready-to-use mockups organised into simple categories.
It offers API integration, allowing users to develop high-quality visuals.
Allows unlimited watermark-free downloads for free and has a budget-friendly paid version.
Cons of Mockups Jar
It has limited features.
Pixlr
If you’re looking for digital signage content creation tools similar to Photoshop but much easier to use, Pixlr ticks the box.
Pixlr has features similar to Adobe Photoshop. It boasts diverse editing tools, allowing you to create and edit photos and graphic content. Importantly, it is much more beginner-friendly than Photoshop.
While Pixlr is a free web-based tool, it also has a mobile app allowing you to create digital signage content on your smartphone.
Pros of Pixlr
It offers advanced features like Photoshop (such as layers, custom brushes, curves, etc).
It is beginner-friendly.
Supports mobile devices.
The interface is customisable.
Cons of Pixlr
It comes with lots of annoying ads.
It requires flash.
Place It
PlaceIt is a powerful tool that helps you create images for your digital signage displays.
It offers tons of templates that enable you to create logos easily. It is also a powerful stock image platform with a huge collection of mockups. It allows you to lay product images over stock photos to create stunning visual representations of your products.
Pros of PlaceIt
Even for those without design skills, PlaceIt is easy to use.
Has one of the biggest collections of mockups.
Also comes with a video maker you can use to create product demos, social media marketing videos, and more.
Cons of PlaceIt
Does not offer advanced editing features.
Compared to competitors, PlaceIt is relatively pricey.
VSCO
VSCO is a mobile photography app from Visual Supply Company that lets users edit photos using mobile devices.
It comes with all the tools and filters you need, including sharpness, fade, white balance, saturation, and more, giving you great control to manipulate images for digital signage displays. Interestingly, VSCO is easy to use, allowing even a novice graphic designer to create astonishing visuals.
Pros of VSCO
It provides several choices for editing images.
Users can share their pictures on social media directly.
Cons of VSCO
VSCO is unavailable on the web or desktop as it is a mobile-based app.
Video creation tools
Some of the best tools to create great videos for your digital signage screens include:
Biteable
Biteable is a leading online video maker that lets you create concise, engaging, on-brand video content for your digital signage.
It offers a variety of video templates with a lot of customisation options for you to work your magic. It also comes with millions of stock footage and music, ensuring it provides everything you need to create astonishing videos.
Pros of Biteable
Biteable is super easy to use.
It has a humongous library of templates, stock footage, and music, allowing you to create your video content in one place.
It produces high-quality marketing videos.
Cons of Biteable
It does not have voiceover functionality.
It takes a few seconds to update changes to a scene, which becomes tedious if you have a lot of scenes.
DaVinci Resolv
DaVinci Resolve is one tool that has matured over the years, growing from just a colour grading tool to a full-featured video editing tool that includes editing, audio, compositing, 3D, and encoding.
Given its background in colour editing, DaVinci Resolve is arguably the best video maker for colour editing.
On top of all these, DaVinci Resolve is an intuitive software that is easy to use.
Pros of DaVinci Resolve
Has exceptional colour grading capability.
It’s easy to use.
It’s budget-friendly.
Cons of DaVinci Resolve
It consumes a lot of processing power and RAM.
It has few direct integrations and plugins.
iMovie/ Windows Movie Maker
Computers usually come with a video editing tool. Yes, the iMovie on your Mac or the Windows Movie Maker on your PC device. These are no-frills tools you can use to edit videos and export them to your digital signage platforms.
These solutions come with amazing themes, fun transitions, and music, allowing you to create good video content easily.
They’re fun for creating photo slide shows, making them perfect for businesses that need to create digital menu boards and similar digital content.
Pros of iMovie/ Windows Movie Maker
They come with a simple drag-and-drop editor, making them easy to use.
They come free with Mac and Windows devices.
Comes with special effects.
Cons of iMovie/ Windows Movie Maker
They cannot create complex videos.
WeVideo
WeVideo is a cloud-based solution that lets you create and edit videos for your digital signage content directly in your web browser.
Thus, there is no need for heavy software downloads, and video editing is faster as you do not need to wait for locally stored files to load.
WeVideo has amazing collaboration capabilities, allowing you and your team to access files at every stage of your video creation process. It supports 4k rendering, ensuring high-quality videos. Plus, it offers features you’ll be hard-pressed to find in other tools, such as video analytics.
It also has an intuitive interface that simplifies video editing, allowing even beginners to produce great videos in minutes. In fact, We Video advertises as the best online video editor for beginners.
Pros of WeVideo
It has a user-friendly interface.
It has great collaboration capabilities.
It offers cross-platform functionality, supporting web-based, Android, and iOS devices.
Cons of WeVideo
You’ll have limited control over effects.
Magisto
If you’re looking for a simple content creation tool to use with your digital signage software, think Magisto.
Magisto is owned by the interactive video experience platform Vimeo. It simplifies the process of making video content. You simply upload footage and pick a theme. Magisto will do the rest, using visual analysis to source all the engaging points in your footage and automatically turn your footage into a stunning video story.
Pros of Magisto
It’s very easy to use.
It offers several editing options.
Cons of Magisto
It does not allow long videos.
Kizoa
Kizoa is another very recognisable name for making video content for marketing campaigns, social media posts, event commemoration, etc.
It creates 4k videos and slideshow presentations, making it excellent for creating stunningly beautiful video content for digital signage displays.
The video editing tool has a lot of templates to make your video creation job easy. With categories such as webinar promos, product video ads, video testimonials, offers & coupons, and more, you’ll find templates for different types of digital signage video content.
Kizoa comes with all the video editing features you’ll need, including transition effects, video trimming, audio loops, and voiceovers.
Pros of Kizoa
It’s relatively beginner-friendly.
It comes with tons of templates for easily creating your video content.
It comes with millions of stock images and videos, allowing you to work in one place.
The free version has many editing features (it’s not as limited as some other tools).
Cons of Kizoa
Only the Pro plan comes with HD recording for mesmeric video quality.
Filmora
If you want a powerful video editing tool (with advanced editing features) to go with your digital signage solution, you can’t go wrong with Wondershare Filmora.
Filmora comes with advanced features like AV synchronisation, green screens, motion tracking, AI portrait effects, and more. It also has a huge library of templates, presets, and audio for creating stunning videos.
Pros of Filmora
Has a lot of advanced features to enhance your video content.
Offers an exhaustive library of templates, presets, and audio.
Allows recording and adding transcripts to videos.
Cons of Filmora
The interface needs a bit of a learning curve.
While you can use Filmora for free, videos will be watermarked.
Animation creation tools
Animation is eye-catching. So, you should include it in your content strategy when deploying digital signage solutions. Top animation tools for digital signage include:
LottieFiles
LottieFiles is one of the easiest ways to add animations to your docs, pitches, apps, websites, and, of course, digital signage displays.
LottieFiles is the world’s most extensive library of animations. It gives you access to free animations that you can download and integrate into your primary design tools to create dynamic signage content.
Pros of LottieFiles
It integrates with design tools seamlessly.
Lottie animation files can be downloaded in JSON, GIF, and MP4 formats.
Cons of LottieFiles
Creating complex animations requires a steep learning curve.
Giphy
Giphy is a GIF maker that lets you convert your images to GIFs. It lets you put life into your static photos by converting them to animated stickers.
It is also the world’s largest database of GIFs, clips, and animated stickers, where you can search for appropriate ones for use in your content.
Pros of Giphy
It supports different image formats (JPG, MP4, MOV, GIF, and PNG).
Allows you to post footage directly from online video hosting sites.
Allows you to add text annotations, free-hand drawings, and stickers to GIFs.
Lets users create animated GIF slideshows.
Cons of Giphy
You have to sign up to use the tool.
Adobe Animate
Software giant Adobe does not disappoint. Adobe Animate is a 2D animation software solution from them. Needless to say, the software is fit for purpose.
Adobe Animate lets you create Flash animation films, cartoons, and GIFs, making it a useful tool for making interactive digital signage content. The tool’s inverse kinematics features and more make it easy to animate 2D characters, allowing for realistic facial expressions and movements.
If you’re looking to show dynamic interactive videos, educational content, or quizzes on your digital screens, Animate may serve you well.
Pros of Adobe Animate
Provides high-quality graphics
Very easy to use.
Cons of Adobe Animate
Its 3D features are basic (no surprise there, being that it’s a 2D animation software)
Its camera angle is limited (so it’s difficult to create animations with different movements and camera angles).
Animaker
Animaker is an AI-based animation generator that helps you create studio-quality animation with little to zero design experience. It offers customisable templates and a drag-and-drop editor so that anyone can create quality animated videos in no time.
If you’re looking to create whiteboard explainer videos for your digital signage screens, consider Animaker!
Once you have a storyboard for your video idea, you choose a template, customise the elements in each scene, and add voiceover and music. Then, you can publish it.
Pros of Animaker
It’s easy to use.
It offers a wide variety of templates.
It has text-to-speech functionality that helps you create voiceovers easily.
It has excellent collaboration capabilities, allowing teams to work together on the animated video creation process.
You can export the videos in various formats and resolutions.
Cons of Animaker
It’s only available online, so using it will be difficult if you have internet connectivity issues.
It has a bit of a steep learning curve.
The animation is simplistic.
Presentation and chart creation tools
Charts can enliven your digital signage content. Here are the top tools to create powerful charts and presentations.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint is an online data visualization tool that lets you create and present data in formats that appeal to your audience. It comes with features like charts and infographics to help you make complex data more understandable.
Powerpoint offers different templates and animated transitions that make it amazingly simple to use. Yes, with these features, virtually everyone can use Powerpoint to create good presentations.
Pros of PowerPoint
Lets you create visually stunning charts and slides easily.
Highly customisable.
PowerPoint presentations can be saved in different file formats.
Cons of PowerPoint
Powerpoint presentations follow a predefined sequence of slides.
Google Slides
Google is another software giant that doesn’t disappoint. Google Slides is a cloud-based tool for creating online slideshows.
It is a cloud-based tool, so you can use it to make beautiful presentations from any device. It boasts templates, slide transitions, and more that make your job easy when creating presentations.
Pros of Google Slides
Using Google Slides to create content is very easy.
It offers a wide range of features for creating high-quality presentations.
It has collaboration capabilities, allowing teams to work together on slides in real-time.
Cons of Google Slides
Its offline abilities leave much to be desired.
Piktochart
Piktochart is a popular name in the chart creation tools market. It’s arguably the most popular infographic maker.
It comes with a simple drag-and-drop editor and many customisable templates, which means anyone can use Piktochart to create professional-looking infographics, charts, maps, and other visualisations.
You simply upload your data, choose a template and customisation options, and the tool will do the rest. Digital signage content creators will find Piktochart very helpful in creating attractive and engaging content.
Pros of Piktochart
Has an intuitive interface.
Has a vast amount of templates for quickly creating infographics.
Allows teams to collaborate on projects.
Cons of Piktochart
Piktochart may be difficult to master.
Being a cloud-based software, its offline capabilities are limited.
Dynamic and interactive content creation tools
Live/dynamic content updates your viewers about real-time events, while interactive content encourages immediate interaction. This makes them some of the best content types for customer engagement.
Some of the best tools for creating these content types for digital signage include:
Tint
Tint is a social media aggregator that lets you find, curate, and display user-generated content across marketing campaigns, websites, and screens.
The Tint app lets you show your social media feeds on your digital screens. This brings your online presence to your physical location to boost customer engagement and conversions.
Pros of Tint
It has an intuitive interface with customisable features, making it easy to use.
It’s mobile-friendly, making it suitable for live events.
It’s great for organising user-generated content.
Cons of Tint
Tint is relatively pricey.
Weather Apps
Weather apps let you add live weather updates to your digital signage content strategy. The apps enable you to display weather web pages on your digital screens. Top weather apps for digital signage content include Weather Radar, AUS Rain Radar, and BOMWeather.
Top digital signage software like Luna Screens can add any web URLs to your screens, and most web apps can export links to view the weather for specific areas. You can utilize this feature to showcase the current forecast in the local area and other top cities worldwide.
Pros of weather apps
These apps are relatively easy to use.
They let you display temperature in units your viewers understand best (Celsius or Fahrenheit).
You can display the weather in multiple locations.
The weather apps automatically sync your location.
Cons of weather apps
The apps are programmed to err on the side of caution, so they may not show certain weather if the odds of it occurring are remote.
Slido
Slido advertises as the “ultimate Q&A and live polling platform.” It’s used to include Q&A, live polls, and quizzes in marketing campaigns.
So, Slido is excellent for businesses that want to create dynamic digital signage content. Showing live polls on your digital signage screens can help you engage viewers and earn their trust (as it’ll show that you care about their opinions).
Pros of Slido
It offers several themes, such as multiple choice, ranking stars, word cloud, and open text.
It’s super easy to use.
The tool converts poll results into beautiful and engaging infographics.
Cons of Slido
The free version is limited.
TimelineJS
TimelineJS is an open-source app from Knight Lab for building visually rich, interactive timelines. You can include TimelineJS’ timelines in your digital signage content to show your brand’s history or product development journey.
The platform is easy to use. Even beginners can use it to create dynamic digital signage content using just a Google spreadsheet.
Pros of TimelineJS
It uses an easy-to-use spreadsheet-like template to convert chronological stories into visual and interactive timelines.
It allows developers to fully customise their presentation’s CSS.
Cons of TimelineJS
It does not give much room for creativity.
Takeaway: Pair the best graphic design tools with the best digital signage solution
The tools listed above will help you create visually stunning and highly engaging content that connects with your target audience and converts.
True, content is crucial to successful digital signage deployment. But so is the digital signage solution used.
You need digital signage software with intuitive content management and scheduling, allowing you to organize and upload your content easily.
After investing in content creation tools and creating great content, you won’t want to mess everything up with a complex signage solution. Also, the right tool should minimise downtime so your screens do not go blank when they should be on.
Make no mistake, many digital signage solutions can set you back. So, finding the right digital signage solution is very important. This is why Luna Screens is your sure bet!
Luna Screens is a leading digital signage solution in Australia. It lets you transform any screen into digital signs. With our customisable templates, you can easily manage your content even with no technical skills. Plus, we guarantee optimum uptime.
Get Started with Luna Screens today to create and manage your digital signage content!